Ads starring Canadian egg farmers boost sales

Published on May 30, 1997.

TORONTO, Ontario -- Egg sales in Canada are up for the first time in 18 years and the increase comes on the heels of television creative from Roche Macaulay & Partners, Toronto. Sales are up 6% since the agency began its campaign for the Canadian Egg Marketing Agency about 18 months ago, using real-life egg farmers and their families in national 30-second spots.

"We felt we needed to deal with the healthiness issue (of eggs) but we couldn't go right at it," says Andy Macaulay, the ad agency's director of strategic planning. Instead, the farm families talk about how the wholesomeness of eggs makes them the perfect natural food. "What more credible vehicle than the people who bring this food to our table," he says. "Viewers have said `These people aren't going to lie to us.'"

Indications are that the jump will continue -- sales were up slightly more than 8% in the last quarter.

Profiling farmers will be "a continued backdrop" over the next 18 months, the second half of a national three-year plan from the Ottawa-based Canadian Egg Marketing Agency.